More than 15 years ago, former United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and colleagues established an organization to promote civics education in the United States as a nonpartisan, fact-based endeavor. She could not have been more prescient in recognizing a core need of our society, one that has continued to erode.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, less than 30 percent of fourth-, eighth- and twelfth-grade students are proficient in civics, and a significant gap persists among racial and ethnic groups. It is therefore perhaps not surprising to hear voices expressing surprise and consternation in realizing that the United States of America is not, and never has been, a pure national democracy, but rather a democratic republic in which responsibilities and power are shared among state and federal governments.

Some are dismayed, convinced of the unfairness of a system in which the concept that each person's vote has approximately the same value applies only at the state level and in the U.S House of Representatives, married with the concept of state-based representation in the U.S. Senate and blended results in the electoral college. In the throws of the coronavirus pandemic, some declare obsolete the traditional rules under which the states, rather than the federal government, have the primary authority to address health and safety of the people. Others seem to believe we would be better off allowing a cult of personality to dictate our freedoms and override reasoned respect for our institutions.